The power of 'Wit'

By Rachel Bachrach

For the Daily

"Time goes so slowly, yet is so scarce," says Vivian Bearing on her death bed, the main protagonist of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Wit." This quote is just one of many that sends the audience full of chills during this 90-minute production.

Performance Network's interpretation of Wit is outstanding and could not have been done without the brave performance of actress Jan Radcliff, who plays Prof. Bearing. Bearing is a patient with stage four ovarian cancer and the play spans the time of 12 months while she is in the hospital. During this time, she takes the audience on a journey through her past life; from the time she was five reading her first book to the times in her lectures when she gave no mercy to her students.

Bearing's character is a sardonic and very intelligent academic who teaches 17th Century holy sonnets by John Donne, whose poems are full of metaphysical references and dry wit. She is strong-willed, witty (like Donne's sonnets), and compassionless. As she tells the audience her life story - in the hospital bed - her dry sense of humor lets the reality of cancer really show. Her encounters with the Chief of Medical Oncology, Dr. Kelekian, and a clinical fellow, Jason, relay the hard and cold feelings of doctor-patient relationships. Jason, played by Nick Barnes, is only interested in the effects of a new drug on tumors and would rather do research than interact with human beings. Ironically, Jason was a student of Prof. Bearing's and has now become just as coldhearted as she once was to him. Susie, an R.N., is Bearing's main caregiver and, although not the smartest person, is the most compassionate. Both the character of Jason and Susie, played by Kelly Pino, are acted very convincingly and help the main paradox of being smart and insensitive or not so smart yet sympathetic. Of course, Bearing realizes that she once was as cruel as Jason, yet now it is too late. As she comes to terms with her final days, she realizes that "now is the time for simplicity ... for kindness," and she is finally at peace with herself.

Although this play seems to be about cancer, it is not. It is about finding out how to live one's life while one is living and not when it is too late. Wit is beautifully written and also well intertwined with Bearing as a professor of Donne's morbid and complicated sonnets. This shows Bearing's strong will to teach one of the hardest poets and also her ability to hide behind the wit of Donne and herself. The other characters of the play compliment Bearing well by stressing the importance of human love and care for one another.

Although there is much medical jargon throughout the play, it is needed to convey the authenticity of a hospital setting. If anything, it makes the viewer a little more knowledgeable at the end of the play. The simple set just enforces the importance of the language being spoken by Bearing and her cast mates. Bearing believed that being intelligent would make life worthwhile, but she realizes in the end that one must have both intelligence and compassion to lead a life of true bliss.

Performance Network's Wit will be shown through Nov. 19, Thurs-Sat at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Courtesy of Performance Network

Jan Radcliff as Vivian Bearing in "Wit."